By: M.S.Yatnatti: Editor and Video Journalist Bengaluru: Urgent need to restore the interconnectivity among lakes, that Bengaluru's lakes are in dire straits is well known. Now, researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have only confirmed this further. According to a recent analysis done by them, Bengaluru has lost 45-50% of interconnectivity among lakes, owing to encroachments and unplanned development. This has not only resulted in decaying of lakes due to sewage inflow, but has also led to frequent flooding of areas in neighbourhoods.Bellandur Lake, the Bengaluru city's most polluted water body that spews toxic froth and occasionally bursts into flames, is guarded by several marshals who have been deployed by BBMP to check garbage dumping and encroachments. However, the 16-member team reportedly does not have the power to penalize the offenders. All they can do is just warn miscreants and 'advice' them not to repeat it. Reportedly they may have been successful in discouraging a few culprits, but warnings or advice from a seemingly toothless team will not keep offenders at bay. The BBMP must do a reality check to assess how far its measures have been successful on the ground and take adequate corrective steps.The fire at Bellandur Lake is a human-made disaster. Reportedly National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently had asked the Karnataka government about the cause of frequent fires at Bellandur Lake, including the 30-hour-long blaze a couple of weeks ago, government agencies submitted that it was due to burning grass -- probably a fire set off by miscreants.However, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the country's premier science institution has, in one of its reports filed in the wake of a similar fire in February 2017, identified increasing level of methane in the highly polluted lake as the cause of the fire.
A senior scientist with IISc reportedly had said that their preliminary investigation to find out the cause of the January 19 fire in the water body also indicated that the presence of methane had fanned the blaze and sustained it for more than 30 hours. It is time BDA BBMP act united, and shut down lake for swage to enter and not industries, Bellandur Lake needs a compound wall I am suggesting a way to solve Bellandur and Varthur Lake problems which has become health hazardous. a pilot project to clean it Either you close it or convert it into a rain water harvesting tank. .Let Government BDA BWSSB BBMP construct concrete wall around Bellandur Lake and convert that into a water tank and allow only rain water to be stored as rain water harvesting tank and stop any sewage and industrial discharge into lake .By this it could store clean water in Bellandur and Varthur. If this is successful then can be repeated to other lakes . The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, one of the Narendra Modi's flagship schemes, may be missing out on one of the key ingredients of clean cities .Many of India's big cities are struggling to treat their sewage as well. According to figures from the 2016 compendium of environment statistics, Delhi's sewage treatment capacity was only 60% of its total sewage generation. The figure is less than half for many big cities in eastern and central India.Just construction of lakhs of toilets are not sufficient .It is equally important sewage so collected cannot be let in open drains and lakes but in Bengaluru BWSSB is not able to treat all the sewage so generated and it is helplessly allowing sewage to enter in open drains and lakes and it is causing oxic faoam and other harmful effects to citizens . Vision statement: Mission statement: of BWSSB both are not read by officers of BWSSB.